


Firelight and Forgiveness

by AubreyPosenEsquire



Series: Random AU's [14]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, talk of mental health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29587485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AubreyPosenEsquire/pseuds/AubreyPosenEsquire
Summary: Stacie and Aubrey talk after the campfire moment in Pitch Perfect 2.
Relationships: Stacie Conrad/Aubrey Posen
Series: Random AU's [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971802
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	Firelight and Forgiveness

**Author's Note:**

> I really do adore these two. I wanted to have a bit of a missing moment for them.
> 
> Thanks to pleaseactsurprisedxx for the beta work.

The orange glow of the shimmering coals in the fire pit were the only light after the moon dipped behind a cloud. A fresh log hadn’t been added in the last half hour or so, and the flame was reduced to the slow burning of coals at the bottom of the stone pit. 

“You know, it’s not safe to be out here alone.” Stacie was still dressed in the pink tank top she had on before but the flannel vest had given way to a light pink jacket to stem off the slight breeze in the air. 

“You shouldn’t be away from the group,” Aubrey said before she brought her coffee to her lips and took a drink. After the Bellas were sent back to their tent, she had refilled her mug with fresh coffee and a bit more bourbon. 

“Meh.” Stacie gave a shrug as she sat down where Chloe had been sitting. She reached for two small logs and carefully tossed one and then the other on the hot coals. It didn’t take very long before flames started to dance over the fresh fuel. “Chloe knows I’m with you.”

Aubrey looked at Stacie’s profile as she watched the logs catch fire. Her eyes took in the small changes since the last time the two had seen each other. Her jaw was a little more defined; her outfits a little less revealing; her personality still the same mix of cocksure and earnestly self aware that it had always been. 

“I’m leaving Georgia.” Stacie didn’t look at Aubrey when she spoke. “MIT wants me and when MIT wants you, well you don’t turn that down.” She sounded almost angry. 

“Boston is a great city,” Aubrey whispered.

Stacie looked down at her hands for a moment before over to Aubrey. “It is.” She was from the northeast so it was a return home so to speak. “The program is going to push me hard.”

Aubrey saw the look in Stacie’s eyes and tried very hard to keep from reading too much into the emotion there. “I’m proud of you.” She managed to give a smile that wasn’t faked. She really was proud of Stacie’s accomplishment. 

“This place is pretty amazing.” Stacie looked back at the building behind them and then out toward where the Bella tent was. “You’ve done well for yourself.”

“I managed to do well enough.” Aubrey’s smile woke a bit as she thought about how she ended here. 

“It’s not Harvard though.” Stacie turned her head from Aubrey to look back at the fire. “You broke up with me because you said you were going to go to Harvard law school after Barden and long distance was too hard.”

“I did go to Harvard,” Aubrey sighed. “And I couldn’t handle it.”

“You?” Stacie’s head turned sharply to look directly at the older Bella. 

Aubrey looked down at her hands in her lap. “I withdrew after I finished my first year.”

Stacie reached over to put her hand on top of Aubrey’s when she heard the shame in her voice. From her time around the former Bella captain, she knew how much Aubrey valued hard work and using her iron will to get herself where she wanted. The idea didn’t match with her withdrawing from law school. 

“Bree, what happened?” Stacie whispered. The nickname used so frequently in the moments they had shared for the few months they dated slipped off of her lips like it hadn’t ever left. 

Aubrey gave a wry smile. 

“I ended up having a nervous breakdown,” Aubrey couldn’t look at Stacie as she spoke. “I managed to get through the first year running on expectations from my parents and myself and then as soon as I stopped for a second I fell apart. I couldn’t get out of bed. I had panic attacks over the smallest things. I couldn’t stop crying. I was angry without any reason behind it; I felt like I was dying. My sister drove up to see me after I stopped replying to our text thread and saw how bad it was. She helped me get into therapy and stayed with me for a few weeks to get me started with it all.”

The horror that ran through Stacie’s veins felt like ice. The idea that Aubrey had gone through all of that without her knowing, without any of the Bellas there to support her, made Stacie feel an unpleasant knot form low in her belly. 

“Aubrey…” Stacie trailed off. 

“I got better,” Aubrey managed a small smile. “Therapy saved me. A few different meds at first helped me get regulated, and now I take one a day to keep myself level. Weekly therapy appointments as well. I’ve even thought of going back to law school, if I could get a manager for this place.”

Stacie felt Aubrey’s hand turn under hers until the pair’s fingers were laced together. She tugged at her arm until both were on their feet. Slowly—to give Aubrey time to pull away if she wanted—Stacie wrapped Aubrey up in her arms. Wordlessly the pair clung to each other as both took comfort from a connection that had cooled but never gone cold. 

“I missed you,” Stacie said while pressing a kiss to Aubrey’s hairline. 

“I missed you too,” Aubrey replied before she tucked her head under Stacie’s chin. The pair fit as effortlessly against each other now as they had when she was a senior at Barden. 

“There have been other people in my life, but they haven’t made me feel like you did when the two of us were together,” Stacie stated as the pair swayed together to the sound of the crickets in the background. 

“I tried dating a few times,” Aubrey sighed as her arms tightened subconsciously around Stacie’s waist. “Never felt as comfortable as this though.”

“We’d have to start over, because I don’t think either of us are who we were the last time we were together. But— if you’re willing to give us another try, so am I.” Stacie held her breath as she waited to see if she stuck her neck out to get her head chopped off or not. 

Aubrey felt Stacie’s breath hold as she pulled back to look into her eyes. “Do you trust me?” the blonde asked. 

“Always.”

Aubrey gave her a smile before leaning up to kiss her cheek. She used a bucket of water— the sputtering stealing the quiet of the night—to dampen the coals before putting a cage over it. Once she was sure that it was out she turned to Stacie. 

“Come on,” Aubrey slipped her hand back into Stacie’s before leading her down a path toward the cabin she used when she stayed here. 

Using a key she had on a chain around her neck to unlock the door, she led the pair inside the small cabin. It was a 15 foot by 15 foot room with a small bathroom at the back. A bed against one wall with a galley style kitchen across from it. 

“This is home when I don’t go to my apartment,” Aubrey explained as she shut and locked the door. 

“Cozy,” Stacie commented as she looked around. 

It was small, but Aubrey had little touches all around that brought a smile to Stacie’s lips. Some photos of the Bellas from her college days, a quilt that Stacie knew once belonged to Aubrey’s great grandmother over the back of a chair by the window, and some fresh flowers on the small table that was in the middle of the room. 

“Stay the night?” Aubrey asked.

“No where else I rather be,” Stacie wrapped Aubrey back up again. 

The pair each took a turn using the bathroom and changing into oversized shirts that Aubrey had around to sleep in. Tucking themselves into her bed and then around each other felt more natural than awkward even with years in between the last time they shared a bed. 

“I texted Chloe when you were in the bathroom,” Aubrey admitted. “She had a phone on the secured wifi if any of you really needed something in the middle of the night.”

“You sneak,” Stacie laughed in the dark room. 

“If something did happen, and I needed to get there quickly, someone had to have a way to get a hold of me.” Aubrey pointed out. 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Stacie chuckled as she closed her eyes with her head against Aubrey’s. 

“We have a lot of talk about,” Aubrey whispered.

“Yeah we do. But we’re not going to get it in tonight.” Stacie yawned as she felt the hard day Aubrey put the Bellas through. 

The pair settled against each other in the bed, limbs tangled up, as they both seemed not to want to give the other any personal space in the bed tonight. 

“When the Bellas go back to Barden, stay an extra night? I want to take you on a date,” Aubrey whispered as the moon cast odd shapes on the wooden floor as the light came through the kitchen window. “I can drive you back on Monday morning.”

“I’d really like that,” Stacie’s voice sounded like she was half asleep as she found Aubrey’s hand under the blankets. “I don’t have any Monday classes until a 3 PM lab.”

Aubrey closed her eyes as she felt Stacie’s breathing even out as she fell to sleep. She laid in her bed and felt truly warm and content for the first time in longer than she cared to admit. As she drifted off of sleep, she had a smile on her lips. Inviting the Bellas to the Lodge really was the best idea she had in a very long time.    
  



End file.
